Game Thread, Chapter 1: All the Kings Horses...

[InnaBinder]

Does my Raven's eye vantage point allow me to see Squeak the Guard?  If not, then http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2348158/(23, whee!) Spot check for the Raven to find the bugger.

[Kuroimaken]

"Bad news don't talk." Raoul offers simply. "I think you'll find we are VERY reasonable people, here. And we certainly don't plan on going anywhere. Why don't you give us a chance to display our good intentions instead of letting your fear get the best of you... I'm sure something could be arranged."

Fully heightened Suggestion on Mr. Squeaky Voice, assuming he can be targeted. If he can't... it's time to roll diplomacy. Diplomacy Check Includes Sinergy Bonus for Bluff Ranks (1d20+7=24)

[PhaedrusXY]

You can't see him from your vantage point Kuro. You can see some of the guards, and Inna's bird can see him. (forgot about that... I meant to kill that damn thing. It isn't even hidden, for christ's sake. I figured it might be hard to spot a black bird against a night sky, but the kobold has darkvision, so no trouble there.)

He's a kobold with a bluish tinge to his skin. Standing next to him is a large, burly human with a ruby-tipped polearm. There are several guards with longbows aimed out of other nearby arrow slits.

As you peer down on him, he says "Nothing doing! Call back your damn familiar before I put an arrow in it, too!"

Sejanus sees him raise his bow and aim it at his bird's point of view as he says the last.

Then he looks thoughtful for a moment.

"Prove your good intentions, eh? You tell me what you're really here for, and the truth dammit, and then I might consider some kind of deal, depending on what it is. I might have some use for you. Fight fire with fire, and all that."

[Kuroimaken]

With that, Raoul turns to the rest of his group. "Let me just quickly consult with my colleagues. Not something I'd decide on my own, see. And for crying out loud, have your guards put down the slingshots before they hurt themselves."

"I think we have a foot in the door here," he offers via the shared link of telepathy, "but we might just have to go along with him. Like Xuuvosic said, we can take them, but then we'll get nothing of this town. Once he's within my sights, I can charm him to get off our back, but as it is now, not much I can do about this."

[VennDygrem]

Thinking back at the collective, Cade offers, "How are we supposed to convince them of our intentions? If they insist we drop our disguises, they will never trust us. They're looking for the whole truth, but we can't trust them any more than they can trust us. So, how much do we tell them?"  

I can't begin to imagine what they picked up with their detection spells, what with all our magic gear. Dunno how harmless form interacts with that. And I'm not Evil. But I can't help if being demonspawn may or may not cause me to radiate a faint aura of evil just because of what I am...

[HeadofVecna]

Xuuvosic holds up his hands in a placatory gesture, "Whoa! no need for violence. Its true, some of us aren't saints. And we do have a few skills. We did get away from the things on the road after all. All we're looking for is a safe place to sleep, a few too many brews, and maybe a few women. After that we'll be shipping out. So what was this deal you had in mind. I hope it doesn't involve going back toward the forest."

Telepathically, We do Cade. But being able to see the motherfuckers is kind of a prerequisite. From what they're showing here, sneaking in ain't gonna be a problem. A clean set of disguises and we've golden. Or if squeaky's deal ain't a hassle, even better.

This forum really exploded all of a sudden. What X. said is mostly true but I suppose a bluff check is in order (1d20+15=20).

[Bozwevial]

Well, Marlowe has a constant nondetection effect up, so no telling whether they actually read anything on him or not. Of course, that might be just as revealing.

Marlowe stands quietly behind Cade, ears pricked and listening intently to the unknown speaker.

I'd like to make a Sense Motive check or two. Not sure if they require separate rolls, but I'll give two anyway. One is to gauge the speaker's CR (equal to my ECL, 1-3 greater or less than my ECL, or 4+ in either direction are the possible responses), and the second is to reveal his alignment (and read his surface thoughts, if I beat him by 20 or more). Both are opposed checks against Bluff.

Sense Motive (1d20+15=28, 1d20+15=16)

Oh well, not going to read his thoughts anytime soon

[PhaedrusXY]

The bird allows Sejanus to see the big man look at the kobold and shrug. Then the kobold says "Well... I believe you are mostly telling the truth. I still don't trust you, and I still don't see any reason to let a bunch of miscreants into my city, though.

When you say "ship out", do you mean literally? We haven't had a ship come into our port in two days, nor one leave since the sun went out. Everyone is scared and for good reasons. Many of the later ships that did make it in had troubles and were nearly lost. I think most folks are just sitting to wait and see what happens next, or just drinking their fears away.

I don't give up so easily, though. I think the Almighty Pun Pun will not let us down. I'm sure he'll work things out. After all, this isn't the first time gods have died, is it? There's always a shakeup and then things go back more or less to normal, right? Although it is starting to get kind of cold..."

You all have noticed that with no sun to warm the days, the temperature has dropped and now what should be a sultry summer night feels more like late fall. You wouldn't be surprised to see snow falling soon if this keeps it up.

"I'm still trying to hold things together here though, see? And there are too many problems for me to take care of alone. I'm doing my best just keeping this place relatively safe for the people who make it here. So if you guys can go take care of a problem for me, I might let you sneak out of here on the first ship that decides to brave the waters. Sound like a plan?"

He continues on, not waiting for an answer.

"There is a band of goblins that have just wrought devastation around here since the lights went out. They've destroyed most of the surrounding villages, and killed a hell of a lot of people. We've managed to take out enough of them when they've approached our walls that they've more or less left us alone for the last couple of days, but we're basically under siege here. If you could get rid of them, my opinion of you would certainly improve some. As far as I know, they've been holing up in the edge of the Forest of Lethyr, just a bit to the East of here. I'm not sure what happened to the druids that used to keep such ruffians in check there. I'm sure they've got their own troubles.

What do you say? A bunch of goblins shouldn't be too much of a threat for the likes of you, I'd judge."

@Boz

Bluff 1d20+10=19
His CR is near your own. You can't judge his alignment, but you think he might be up to something and not telling everything he knows about the goblins.

[Bozwevial]

Marlowe frowns slightly, head tilted to one side as he thinks, <The one who's talking won't put up too much of a fight if things get...messy...but he's not being entirely honest about the goblins. He's got something else in mind...You want me to shoot him if they open the door?>

[Kuroimaken]

<Not a wise move. We go in fireballs blazing and we'll have to squeeze and torture the info out of whatever's left - which may not be much. Probably have the corpse of whoever COULD tell us something on our hands, too. We still have an edge... just because we know he's not telling us the whole story doesn't mean we can't pretend otherwise. Going into a trap expecting it to be sprung counters the element of surprise, after all.>

Raoul shrugged slightly at the squeaky-voiced kobold. "I suppose we have a better chance of entering your town by killing the goblins than we do by convincing you we do not, in fact, want to kill you all and rape your corpses - despite the fact that you're still breathing after firing the first shot. But again... not my sole decision to make. And there's one other thing. Even if you don't trust us, we do this for you, and you at least pretend to. We're expecting at least some reward for our trouble. We won't be solving all your problems, but we'll still be cutting you some slack."

Breathing in deeply, Raoul pretends to listen to something whispered from behind. "Some of my associates aren't happy with striking a deal with someone whose face we can't even see. I'll move closer to the gate so you can show yourself. To prove my good intentions, I'm coming completely unarmed."

With that said, Raoul dropped his nodachi on the ground, and walked forward with his arms raised.

[PhaedrusXY]

Can I get a bluff check on aisle 5, Raoul?

[Kuroimaken]

Yes WE CAN! Bluff check on aisle 5! (1d20+14=19)

[PhaedrusXY]

Sense Motive 1d20+9=26
1d20+12=25

You hear a squeaky laughter that sounds almost like a bird chirping mixed with a deep baritone laughter that sounds like a bear snorting.

The deep voice says "Bwahaha, he think you stupid!"

And then even more laughs join the first two, as the guards drop a bit of their nervousness and join in.

[Kuroimaken]

"Actually, I was pretty damned sure. But since you've already acknowledged we've got more power than you do, why are YOU the one making all the demands?"

[PhaedrusXY]

"Because I'm the one behind the wall? Besides, I never said that. I have to stay here and protect the city from people like you guys, and those goblins if they happen to come back.

So what do you say? Go hunt some goblins, or sit here and chat some more?"

[VennDygrem]

Cade projects the following thoughts to his teammates:

He's probably just not telling us that it's not only Goblins in the forest, and that he expects sending us out there will rid him of at least one of two problems either way. If we take care of this issue, come back, and he still doesn't let us in, then we can break our way in as planned before. I don't know about you, but I've got some pent up frustration anyway, and I'd love to take it out on some annoying little green punks right about now. The less bloodshed we loose within the city, the better, especially since the squeaky one sounds to actually be supporting the Kobold. We must be cautious when dealing with these people, no matter how easily we could dispatch them. And maybe, just maybe, we can kill the squeaky one on our way out... I mean, uh, anyway... We need to get this over with. What do you guys think?

[HeadofVecna]

Halfling Xuuvosic looks like he's freaking out a little, So these goblins are in the forest. That's just great. So suppose we don't just keep hiking to some other city, can you tell us a bit more about these guys? How many goblins are there? How are they armed? Do they have magic? Is there anything nastier than a goblin helping them out?"

The demon Choker's telepathic 'voice' is much calmer, but still on edge. Whether we kill the motherfucking goblins or not, we need to get the fuck up out of here.

[Kuroimaken]

"Well, you know how it is. Wooden walls tend to catch fire so very easily." Raoul spoke with a malicious grin. "Like my associates said, we'll need a little bit more information."

<This guy is starting to seriously piss me off...> The cambion relayed to the others.

[PhaedrusXY]

The wall is actually stone, and seamless except for the gate. I should have mentioned that, but no one asked, and I forgot. Since it was erected so fast, you'd guess it took quite a bit of magical power.

"I don't really know how many goblins there are. I didn't do a census or anything. I'd say there were probably around 100 when they foolishly tried attacking us, but there are significantly less than that now. That was about 3 days ago, and they've also been in some fights since then from what I gather. They have some magical assistance, and from accounts I've heard there is one that is much larger than any normal goblin that seems to be leading them."

[Agita]

Well... Ris-Janna's voice can be heard through the mental link, having been quiet until now. If we don't want to beat around some gobbos... I could get in and try to open the door from within... They'd probably notice the latter though. We could go up there and put a dagger at his throat... But I'm not thrilled at standing in the middle of a bunch of guards... She looks up at the top of the wall. Say... did gobbos change in the last 800 years... in any ways I should know about before sticking pieces of metal in them? The young woman still sounds a little bitter about the whole "encased in stone for eight centuries" deal.